so, I have done the heavy armor, sword and shield tank, and a pure mage. now I want to play as an archer/thief character. I plan on imposing a few personal restrictions such as only keeping what I can carry, only use what I find, staying away from civilization when possible, not needing to buy anything (thus no need for gold), no spells at all, use alchemy for health and poisons. Bow will be main weapon and only use daggers or short swords for back up/melee protection. I will use light armor for protection and will use magic items as I find them. if I start to get encumbered, I will have to drop items on the spot. no collecting loot! I will also not buy any houses. as a ranger, I will sleep under the stars, the forests will be my home.

I have MMM installed with the crafting mod, so I should be able make my own armor and arrows by collecting skins and bones from fallen enemies.

I am thinking of going through the fighters guild quest line as a measure of when to be "done" with the character, but, that would mean going into cities. I don't plan on doing the main quest, since I did that already on two characters and don't feel like doing it again. maybe I'll just dungeon delve until I reach a certain level.

as for skills, pretty much all the stealth skills except speechcraft and mercantile, which I will probably take armorer and athletics as replacements. Alchemy will be a minor skill.

any thoughts?

I think it sounds pretty good, just about what I would do with this type of character. But I wouldn′t do any questlines, Fighters included

Agree with mirocu. Avoid the fighter's guild. Too much civilization. But perhaps in your travels you become friends with the Legion Foresters. Or at the very least, a profound respect for each other.

If you want to pass the time you could hunt deer for venison
Well first what race are you planning to play as

I've played as a similar character. Just remember, if you do some dungeon diving, make sure to always stay in stealth before you shoot to get that sweet sneak attack bonus. And ALWAYS collect arrows. Aim for the head/neck its more fun, especially when you go to loot a goblin and see the arrow perfectly placed in his throat.

I was thinking bosmer, because I have never played a bosmer before, either that or kahjiit. I don't much care for argonians although the water breathing would be nice.

its settled then, no quests. i will just play until I'm bored, or play until I have explored every dungeon at least once.

Try Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, there's a very good questline for Ranger types in that mod!

- Become friendly with the creatures of the forest
- Summon powerful spirits of nature to fight at your side
- Defeat an army of corrupted rangers by aiding TRUE rangers!

I would say Bosmer is best for a civilization-shunning character.

if you want to install mods to make your ranger RP better you should take a look at:

real thirst: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14214 and the http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15168 one
adds a fully placeble camp to set up in the wilderness, main thing of the mod is the need to drink. (you will need to go into a city to get new water supply (or find a well outside)).
real hunger: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21106
to go with the other ones.
real sleep extended: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=24649
with this mod you will need to sleep and you can pick up and place bedrolls.

if i find more i will post this here
hope you find this usefull

You essentially want a character who roams the country side making a living off the wild.

Class: Ranger
Specialization: Combat
Favorite Attributes: Strength and Agility
Major Skills: Blade, Armorer, Alchemy, Athletics, Light Armor, Marksmen, and Sneak

Races to concider are Dark Elf, Imperial, Khajiit, and Redguard.... Redguard being the most closely in touch of a Ranger.

This is the closest thing you are going to get to as a Default Ranger Class. I know many will argue this but its the truth. Shame too many people classified things without knowing the classification they use.

If you mean a Fighter/Thief then i would suggest concidering another classification cuz a Ranger is no thief.

I have been using OOO for a while now with MMM. I actually just turned off a bunch of mods like Better Cities (if I am shunning society why have a mod running that I will never see?). I also turned off living economy because again, if am shunning society then I have no need to spend money on anything. I also turned off all of my magic mods because I don't want to use magic at all. I had a lot of crashing and freezing problems on my last character so hopefully fewer active mods will make a more stable game.

I never liked the 'reality' mods, which is kind of funny, because I am a big fan of the Sims games, which is basically just a big eat/sleep/pee game...go figure...

as far as classifying 'ranger' I used the term loosely to describe a character who shuns cities, lives outdoors, uses marksman as the main attack and only uses melee as a last resort. I guess 'archer' would be a better, more general term for what I want. since bosmer gives a bonus to marksman and they are 'wood elves', I figure that would be the best choice of race for what I am looking for.

I have not quite started this character yet. I just finished my pure mage run last night. I was using OOO with Supreme Magicka and I got stupid powerful. maxed defense from shield magic, max magic resistance. I was practically immune to everything. I used a 30 second invis spell to stroll through the last mage guild mission, walked right up to the final boss and used my custom finger of death spell (that was the name I gave it) and killed the last mage guild mission boss in one shot, he didn't even have time to summon anything. yeah, I think got magic out of my system for the time being.

I have a NOrd outlaw raider. Huge bounty.

I would recommend making Alchemy and Armoured majors.

you said you were going to use what you find but then said you are not looting anything? well how are you going to really find anything to use?

sounds good but i think the odd visit to the smaller towns would be good and not to fast travel anywhere always walk, no horses.

I've done something exactly like this!

It's a lot of fun. What I did was found a campsite out in the wilderness that I would call home, and then spend my days hunting and return there by night. I always traveled during the day, and sometimes I would make a day trip to town to sell off pelts and stuff I've crafted.

It's fun to be very strict with these sort of characters, and MMM crafting is just perfect!